Mafia: Definitive Edition

The world of the Mafia is an interesting world and is greatly admired by fans of cinema, especially the Italian Mafia. However, despite the great admiration for these films and these stories in general, they did not receive the attention they deserved from video game developers. That was, of course, before the team introduced us to the Mafia game. Developed by Illusion Softworks in 2002, the series had an excellent start and was released several times after the first part. Now, after more than 18 years, the first part returns to us with the remake version that takes us back to the City of Lost Heaven to experience the life of a gangster once again. How was the experience?

The Story and Characters

The events of the story take place in the fictional town of Lost Heaven in the thirties and take us on a journey through the history of Thomas Angelo, a taxi driver who met Paulie and Sam from the Don Salieri gang who forced him, to help them escape from the men of the Don Morello gang, and from here the events take their course and Thomas joins the gang after… Driving a taxi and the low wages that this job brings with it, bore him. The story is clearly inspired by the most famous Italian mafia films, with some clear connotations to these films. It also tries to embody the same atmosphere of its own while giving each main character due attention and depth, and we liked it. The new dialogues in the remake. We also liked Good voice acting, which helped present a main cast of characters that will stay with us. The story is the most important element of the series in general, and although it offers nothing unusual from Italian mafia films, it is still an exciting and entertaining story with a lot of details. .

The Visuals and Audio

The game benefited from a remake with modern graphics, allowing us to reproduce the various cinematic excerpts of the story, which made the story and its atmosphere more present and exciting. Speaking of the general technical aspect: the game is uneven, and first of all the positive: the reflections and lighting in the game are wonderful and have been excellently maintained. If you look at a body of water you will find it. It reflects the surroundings beautifully, and as you walk in and out of one of the tunnels you will notice the elaborate simulation of the feeling of different lighting. In addition, the various closed environments in which you carry out the missions are full of fine and dense details, such as furniture, cracks in the paint, and other beautiful effects.

Speaking of negatives, the rest of the game’s details look weak, such as smoke and fire. The main characters’ animations and lip movements are fine, but they hurt the other characters. In addition, the city of Lost Heaven appears blurry in some details. The textures appeared to be polygonal in many of these details. It is clear that this project was very lucky. With a budget that forced its developer to pay more attention to some details than others, the experience contains some minor technical errors that did not affect the gaming experience and did not occur frequently. On the audio front, the game presented a set of beautiful tunes that superbly represented the events, and the care put into the sound effects was clear. There’s also the sound of tires rubbing on the asphalt during car chases, metal noises, and the sound of shattering glass as vehicles are damaged or windows shatter.

The Gameplay

The gaming experience in the remake is very similar to the original version, with some changes to the interface. When it comes to shooting and cover, features like the ability to run to the nearest wall or barrier to automatically take cover behind it are missing. The aiming mechanism is also a bit heavy and inaccurate, causing the aiming experience to lack smoothness and accuracy. What is required is that driving vehicles has undergone some improvements, and it can be said that it is generally good. It’s not the best of the type games and at the same time it’s not the worst. One of the additions to the remake is the addition of road signs that appear in front of you to help you see the way to your destination while driving instead of having to search. For Mini the map in the corner of the screen shows where the next turn is, which is a nice addition despite its simplicity.

The Missions and Content

Unlike many similar games, Mafia is essentially a linear game. You go through story missions one after the other, with no break between missions. The beauty of the experience is the variety of missions, between chases and shootouts. Even simple missions where you sneak in and don’t stand out make the experience as varied as possible and at the same time provide many exciting moments. Normally, missions require you to first drive from the gang center to a specific area, which is a boring routine in the game. Luckily, however, you can press a button to shorten the journey and reach your destination straight away, which is a choice. Many thanks to the developer. As you progress through the story missions, you may want to collect some of the cards and comic magazines that are present as a sort of collectible, and otherwise there is little content to occupy the time. There is a Free Ride mode that allows one to move around the game’s open world outside of the scope of the story, but this world does not. She has a lot to do besides driving and collecting some maps or discovering some secrets that have been hidden for those who are interested.

The Final Verdict

The story took approximately 10 hours to complete on Basic difficulty, and you can play the experience on Traditional difficulty for a greater challenge, as reloading causes the bullets to spill out of the weapon’s comb and the bullets do more damage. The first aid kit is not that effective, but as already mentioned, the aiming mechanism in the game is not the best. Trying a higher difficulty level can be more tedious than fun. Ultimately, Mafia: Definitive Edition retells a story that might be the best among the various versions of the series. It is an experience that increased interest in the story and created a special atmosphere for it, while preserving the negatives of the original version.